


Caged Birds

by Cordelia Clay (HGalbertson)



Series: The Adventures of the Starling and Nightingale Caravan [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen, No Romance, No Sex, No Smut, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 05:52:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18162197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HGalbertson/pseuds/Cordelia%20Clay
Summary: "The adventure begins." Corinna and Toya meet in a holding cell, captured by the myriad for reasons unknown.





	Caged Birds

When Corinna had first met the remaining members of the Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities, the performers had been in dire straits. However-- unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the point of view--she had been as well.

At age seventeen, Corinna hadn't known the name of those who chased her, but the Myriad was a ruthless and vast organization of roguish characters. Thieves, spies, kidnappers, the best private investigators money could hire in Wildemount, although their reach spanned beyond the continent. Some viewed them as a useful, if unsavory ally to keep. Some considered them a formidable enemy. But Gods have mercy on the souls hunted by them.

Unluckily enough, since the moment she had left home, Corinna had been one of the Clasp's many quarries--one with an exceptionally high bounty on her head. It hadn't taken too long for her be captured. But Corinna had not made it easy, and for that she granted herself a small amount of pride.

She sat in a cell, the place she'd been kept like an exotic animal for several weeks, waiting for some unspoken figure to arrive and retrieve her. Dark, mildly damp and windowless, with dozens of colorful pillows piled upon a large, luxurious mattress, it was a prison shrouded in a thin veil of comfort. Looking out the small barred window of the locked, solid iron door, there was nothing but an empty cell across from her. Unsurprisingly, she had quickly found that her cell was unique to all others in this prison via her handful of nearly successful escape attempts. 

Corinna was pondering the mold patterns on the ceiling, whether the sun or moon hung in the sky outside, and the purpose of her luxurious captivity, when she heard a struggle in the hall. Peering out the barred window, Corinna stood watched as a guard approached her cell door and thrust inside a rumpled body with a mass of tangled golden hair. Before Corinna could hope to slip out, the door was shut again. Not a good time, anyways, she thought. It would be better closer to a shift change. 

The tiny, breathing body now seething on the floor was clothed in a ragged dress the color of a clear summer sky at twilight and trimmed with gold piping.

Quickly recovering, the individual shot up, and lunged at the door. " You're gonna regret this!" She roared, her small, brawny fists and cracking voice banging against the door. "My friends are gonna find me!"

Heaving out breaths, this small dwarvish girl, no older than twelve or thirteen, slumped against the door. Her eyes shot up only to jump at the site of her cellmate.

Corinna merely arched an eyebrow over her slow blinking eyes.

"... Sorry," she said, shyly.

Corinna's head fell slightly toward her shoulder, her curious gaze steady.

"Umm..." the young girl looked back and forth nervously between the ground and the pink-skinned, black-haired and horned visage in front of her.

"What?" Corinna said, feigning ignorance.

Suddenly, the girl's body shifted, her gaze turning to meet Corinna's. 

"You're one of those horned people," she said.

"It would appear so," Corinna agreed

The girl paused for some time, curling back into herself, playing with the ends of her hair that had broken free of a now very unkempt braid.

"They captured you, too?" She asked.

"Yes," Corinna replied, her face and posture settling a bit. "Yes they did."

"D--do..." The girl hesitated, eyes on the ground in front of her. "Do you know why?"

Corinna breathed in and sat herself back down onto the bed. She crossed her leather-clad legs beneath her long, violet-colored skirt, the slits in the sides going up to her thighs. Her face softened and settled into a somber expression.

"I have a few ideas," Corinna sighed. "What about you?"

"I don't know." The girl went quiet again, and when she spoke after, her voice was quiet and wavering.

"What about your parents?"

The girl remained silent.

Corinna's voice sank into a quiet register. "So you were with friends? Doing what?"

The girl hesitated again. "I, um... I sing."

Corinna nodded to herself. What a world of differences between two performers, she thought.

"Your friends," Corinna whispered, "you said they would come?"

"They will."

"Who are they?"

The girl's expression became distant as tears welled up in her eyes.

The two of them sat like that for some time, the ragged dwarven girl sitting on the stone floor and the strange figure of fiendish beauty sitting on the bed. 

Corinna patted the edge of the bed with her slender, rose-colored hand. 

"It seems that we will be in here for a while, the two of us." Corinna leaned back on her hands, her chin in the air before she craned her neck to peer again at her sudden and sad companion as she carefully sat on the bed. "What is your name, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Toya," the girl spoke in her mousey voice, a tear dripping down one cheek. "I'm Toya."

"Well, Toya," Corinna spoke evenly. "I will say, the myriad made a grave mistake putting us in the same cell."

Toya sniffled. "What?"

"We’re both stubborn. Capable. You're usually smarter than you were when you were caught this time, I’m guessing? And they caught you off guard somehow. As they did me...”

Corinna played with the ring on her forefinger, depicting a small imprint of a nightingale.  
I promise you,” she said, “I will not let them keep us here long enough for either of us to become someone's playthings." Corinna turned to her companion. "So, Will you help me?"

Toya was still for several long moments, and Corinna watched as the tears on the girl’s face began to dry. And when Toya did wipe her tears away, it was rapidly, forcefully, with her Stoney expression still set on the imaginary embodiment of the decisions before her. She turned to her new companion, her green eyes shining brightly with her determined nod.


End file.
